1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in or to aqueous or wet treatment machines, such as for dyeing or bleaching, for example, of fabric in rope form, and it relates more particularly to improvements in or to wet treatment transporting, folding, storage and unloading systems for fabric in rope form in such machines.
By "fabrics in rope form" is meant, both woven fabrics and knitted fabrics, the latter being either rectilinear, or open or tubular, treated in rope form.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Machines for dyeing cloth in the rope form known in the prior art, whether they relate to dyeing becks with a very long bath ratio, jet machines or overflow box machines which use a long bath ratio, or recent machines with a short bath ratio, are equipped with means designed to ensure the circulation of the ropes of fabric in the machine and their folding. Thus becks which have a bath ratio of the order of 1:20 to 1:30, are generally equipped, for the folding of the fabric, with an oval or triangular roll which deposits the rope in folds on an inclined plane in a full bath. However, in this type of dyeing machine, the circulation of the ropes, each being of rather short length (200 m at the maximum), and their movement within the storage compartment, are effected through the dye bath, which disturbs the folding and which causes the formation of loops and of knots in the fabric, which interferes with the circulation of the latter and have an unfavorable influence on the quality of the dyeing.
In conventional jet or overflow box dyeing machines, which use a bath ratio of the order of 1:8 to 1:10, the movement of the ropes is also effected through the dye bath, the folding being carried out at the exit from the dyeing system by mechanical means such as crank, cone, perforated or unperforated, an inclined plane or by using the inner space of the machine itself. In these machines, the intervention of the dye bath to ensure the movement of the fabric has also the effect of disturbing the folding and of being the cause of the formation of loops and of knots which interfere with the circulation of the ropes and alter the quality of the dyeing.
Machines with a very short bath ratio (1:1.5 to 1:2) of the type which are the subject of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 917,408, filed on June 21, 1978, which has issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,759, and French Application No. 77 38577 of Dec. 21, 1977, in the name of Applicant, enable a fabric storage essentially more satisfactory than the other known dyeing machines, in that the textile material is stored therein outside of the bath and is not, for this reason subject to any disturbance due to the bath, since it is no longer the latter which causes the fabric to advance, said fabric being moved only by mechanical means. However, in the case of the treatment of light fabrics and/or the treatment in the machine of several ropes at the same time, by a same dyeing system, with storage of the fabric in the same storage compartment, loops and knots can again nonetheless be formed in the fabric, which interfere with the circulation of the latter and alter the quality of dyeing, in spite of the use of mechanical means, which are generally constituted by the rotation of the storage compartment, or by an inclined plane on which the stock of fabric folds, which is delivered therefrom by pivoting of the inclined plane.
In addition, even in machines in which the movement of the fabric is not caused by the dye bath, as is the case in the known machines mentioned above with a very short bath radio, the dye bath will nonetheless interfere with the folding and storage of the fabric, to impede these: in fact, the dyeing system is placed at the descent of the fabric, just before the return of the latter into the storage compartment, so that the bath sprayed outside of the dyeing system situated in the descent path of the fabric, disturbs, even in such machines, the operations of folding, notably in the case where two ropes are circulating in the same system, in which the dye bath thrown out of the dyeing system situated in the descent path of the fabric can cause the separation of the two ropes, during the operations of folding and of storage, such a separation being capable of resulting, on the reascent, in the formation of loops or of knots.
To minimize the disturbances resulting therefrom on folding, there is a tendency to reduce the flow rate of the bath in the dyeing system for optimizing the operations of folding and of storage, but to the detriment of the dyeing operations.
Besides, in wet treatment machines, notably dyeing machines, known in the prior art, the unloading of the stock of treated fabric is effected by means of a hank-carrier or ring and an unloading roll. However, the existing solution is only satisfactory as long as the unloading devices for the treated fabric only unload a single rope since beyond one rope, the ropes of fabric to be unloaded amalgamate forming twists which considerably disturb unloading and can even cause its stoppage.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a machine for the wet treatment, notably for dyeing, for bleaching or the like, of fabric in rope form which responds to the necessities of practice better than previously known machines for the same purposes, notably in that wet treatment, circulation, folding, storage and unloading systems are provided which eliminate the drawbacks of the corresponding systems known in the prior art.